David Salter
David Salter has enjoyed a varied career in family law with over 45 years’ experience. He served as National Head of Family Law at Addleshaw Goddard and, subsequently, as Joint National Head of Family Law at Mills & Reeve, retiring in 2018.
From 1997-1999, David was Chairman of Resolution, also acting as the first Chairman of Resolution’s Accreditation Committee. He subsequently became President of the International Academy of Family Lawyers from 2010 to 2012, having previously served as the Academy's European Chapter President.
He has sat in various part-time judicial posts since 1985 sitting regularly as a deputy High Court judge and Recorder in the Family Court until March 2022. He now conducts private financial dispute resolution appointments.
David was one of the original members of the Family Procedure Rules Committee which framed the 2010 Rules, serving a ten-year term from 2004 to 2014.
He is a prolific author on a variety of family topics with an acknowledged expertise in relation to pensions on divorce. He is a contributor to the Family Court Practice (The Red Book), Butterworths Family Law Service, Rayden and Jackson, the International Family Law Practice and LexisPSL Family.
Practice Area
Panels
- Contributing Author
- Other Publications
Membership
- President and Fellow of the International Academy of Matrimonial Lawyers, Resolution
66 Contributions by David Salter
PRACTICE NOTES
Writs and Warrants of Possession for Family Property Orders: Family and High Court Procedure (England and Wales)
Writ or warrant of possession of land
A writ of possession in the High Court, or a warrant of possession in the Family Court, is used to enforce an order granting a party possession of land or buildings, for example under a property adjustment order or an occupation order. When an order for sale is made under section 24A of the Matrimonial Causes Act 1973, the court may, under the Family Procedure Rules 2010 (FPR 2010), SI 2010/2955, 9.24, require any party to deliver to the purchaser, or another person, possession of the land and/or the entitlement to receive its rents and profits. If an order for possession is not made at the same time as the sale order, a possession order must first be obtained before a writ or warrant of possession can be issued. A standard possession order form is available—see Practice Note: Standard orders—enforcement, order 4.5. A writ of possession is issued to a High Court enforcement officer, while a warrant of possession is issued to a County Court bailiff...
Family
PRECEDENTS
Narrative statement template for financial remedy proceedings: addressing Matrimonial Causes Act 1973 s 25 factors (England and Wales), reflecting Financial Remedies Guide 2026
STOP PRESS:
The Financial Remedies Guide 2026, issued on 13 March 2026 by Mr Justice Peel (National Lead Judge of the Financial Remedies Court) and His Honour Judge Hess (Deputy National Lead Judge of the Financial Remedies Court), and approved by the President of the Family Division, now replaces and supersedes the following:
Statement on the efficient conduct of financial remedy cases allocated to a High Court judge, whether at the Royal Courts of Justice or elsewhere (1 February 2016) (the High Court judge level efficiency statement)
Statement on the efficient conduct of financial remedy hearings proceeding in the Financial Remedies Court below High Court judge level (11 January 2022) (the below High Court judge level efficiency statement)
Financial Remedies Court Primary Principles document (11 January 2022)
Notice from the Financial Remedies Court: electronic bundles (19 April 2022)
Allocation of financial remedies cases to High Court judge level (21 May 2024)
This document is currently being updated to reflect these changes. See News Analysis: Financial Remedies Guide consolidates existing guidance and efficiency statements. In the FAMILY COURT SITTING AT [ court location ] No...
Family
Q&As
50/50 Care Final Order: Entitlement to Child Periodical Payments and Uncapped CMS Top‑Up—Total Income or Above £156,000?
Much will turn on the exact provisions settled between the parties; for example, whether the essential component of child maintenance was set as a fixed sum with no top‑up payable at the time of the initial order because, at that stage, the payer’s earnings did not cross the relevant threshold. It will also matter whether, when that basic maintenance figure was determined, a 50/50 shared care regime was already in place and operating from the outset. The calculation used in the order appears to mirror the approach endorsed by Mostyn J in CB v KB, particularly at paragraph [49], where he indicated that in any case in which the non‑resident parent’s gross annual income does not exceed £650,000, the starting benchmark should be the output of the formula, disregarding the cap on gross annual income set at £156,000...
Family
Q&As
Joint asset with mother: matrimonial/non-matrimonial on divorce
No statute sets out what counts as a non-matrimonial asset, yet case law has long examined and refined the line between these items and property included within the marital acquest during divorce proceedings. An interest a spouse obtains during the marriage in a parent’s home can be treated as comparable to an inheritance and, for the purposes of classification in financial remedy claims and outcomes, viewed as non-matrimonial. Such an interest might indeed effectively amount to a lifetime gift or a pre-death inheritance...
Family
Q&As
Refused consent order, notice to show cause: can husband resile?
The court holds comprehensive jurisdiction to sanction or decline a financial remedy consent order embodying the parties’ bargain (see section 33A of the Matrimonial Causes Act 1973 (MCA 1973) and the Family Procedure Rules 2010 (FPR 2010), SI 2010/2955, 9.26). Yet the court is neither ‘a rubber stamp’ nor a ‘bloodhound’ or ‘forensic ferret’ (see Pounds v Pounds and L v L). Its jurisdiction cannot be excluded. The court undertakes an autonomous and independent evaluation to enable it to discharge and fulfil its statutory duties by reference to the relevant factors set out in the MCA 1973, s 25...
Family
Q&As
Remarriage: can an undismissed petition support financial remedy?
Section 28(3) of the Matrimonial Causes Act 1973 (MCA 1973)
places a near-complete prohibition on the court’s power to consider any application issued post-remarriage. That restriction is limited by the phrase ‘by reference to the grant or making of that [italics inserted] decree or order’. Yet, once a final order/decree absolute is made or granted in respect of (in this instance) the husband’s petition, there remains no continuing marriage to which the wife’s initial petition can thereafter be advanced or otherwise progressed by her...
Family
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